


Chasing the Stars

by jazzhandslazuli



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Assassination Attempt(s), Attempted Murder, Curses, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fantasy, Magic, Quests, Royalty AU, Slow Burn, True Love's Kiss, Witchcraft, dyslexic peridot, fairytale AU, i had more tags for this but i can't remember all of them lmao, jasper is a princess, peridot is a witch, prosthetic peridot, so are the other crystal gems, sword and sorcery, therianthropy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 14:06:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7535728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazzhandslazuli/pseuds/jazzhandslazuli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One would assume that defeating a witch in fair combat would break the curse she placed upon you. Apparently not. Princess Jasper may be out of the tower, but she's not out of the woods yet.</p><p>She meets Peridot, a bitter thief and witch-in-training, who has a curse of her own to deal with. Together, they embark on a quest to break their curses without relying on the elusive 'true love'. </p><p>Based on a handful of prompts that got way out of hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chasing the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to cruithne01, who lets me yell in their inbox at 2am, and who reads my shitty drafts, and who i love a lot

Jasper had been searching for her True Love her entire life, but she had never expected to find it in the form of a gorgeous sword. Long, shining blade, curved cross-guard, slightly longer than average hilt and a deep red gem on imbedded in the pommel. Even just holding it now she could feel the potential power. She could do serious damage with this thing, and she entertained the thought that kissing it might make her queen.

There was a clearing of a throat behind her. “ _Jasper_ ,” said a voice, mildly nasally, mildly condescending. “Do you  _really_ need another sword?” Jasper sighed. She glanced over at the guard on her left. Champagne, like her sister, Powder, was tiny and slim. A stranger might expect Jasper to be the guard, not the other way around, but she knew from experience that either of them could knock her to the ground. Champagne stared up at her, arms crossed, eyebrow raised. None of the fear or reverence that usually accompanied someone staring at her. Champagne watched her like a parent of a bratty child. Which was somewhat the case.

“Actually, I do,” said Jasper, playing into her role. “It’s pretty.”

“You say that about every sword you pick up.”

“Yeah, but I really mean it this time,” she said. “And I can pay for it.” She tapped the purse tied to her belt smugly. Champagne sighed.

“Resources are finite, Jasper. If you want to be queen, you can’t be spending it all on frivolous toys.” Jasper examined the sword again to see if she loved it any less. She did not.

“Well, if I were my True Love, I would probably be attracted to a really nice sword like this.”

She felt a nudge at her other side and looked down. Powder was practically identical to her sister, save for the fact that she wore her hair down, over her eyes, rather than up. She typically remained neutral during her and Champagne’s little squabbles, but now she glared at Jasper, mimicking Champagne’s pose, and Jasper knew she was outnumbered, and out of her depth.

She grumbled and returned the sword to its display rack. “I can’t believe you’re separating me from my one true love like this,” said Jasper. Champagne rolled her eyes and ushered Jasper out of the store, nodding a silent thank you toward the owner. They joined the thoroughfare in the street, travelling further into the city. Jasper watched after the storefront in longing. “You’re going to be really embarrassed if it turned out that that sword was the love of my life and I die alone and cursed because you wouldn’t let me buy it.”

Champagne snorted. “Honestly, your highness, I have never met anyone, in my entire life, as dramatic as you,” she said.

Jasper wrenched her gaze from store as she lost sight of it, turning back to face the street. Only a moment too late. There was a sudden jolt at her stomach, and she looked down to watch a woman fall to the ground, a pile of books strewn across the street.

The woman was tiny. Everyone was tiny in comparison to Jasper, mind you, but she was smaller than most normal people as well. She had thick blonde hair tied messily in a bun and wore a pair of large, circular glasses. She grimaced as she hit the ground.

Jasper cringed, feeling like a fool. “I’m so s—”

“Watch where you’re going, clod!” the woman growled. She pulled herself up off the ground, gathering her books, and glared up at Jasper. “You can’t just waltz through the street in the middle of the day, barging into people!”

Jasper gaped, stunned into silence. No one had yelled at Jasper since she was maybe twelve years old. Certainly not women who barely came up to her chest. 

Champagne was much quicker to react. She stepped in between Jasper and the woman protectively, a fierce look in her eyes. The woman didn’t flinch.

“Excuse me?” said Champagne. “You do not have the authority or the right to talk to my lady in this way. Do you have any idea who this is?”

The woman glanced behind Champagne at Jasper, an eyebrow raised. “Let me guess. You’re a group of amnesiacs who forgot, not only your identities, but also the fact that it’s rude to take over the whole road like you own the place!”

Jasper snorted and crossed her arms, bending over so she could look the woman in the face. The woman shrunk a little under the scrutiny, though she tried not to show it. Jasper smirked. “ _Like_  I own the place?” said Jasper. “Kid, I  _do_ own the place.”

The woman blinked at her. “You what?”

“This is Princess Jasper, ruler of this kingdom,” said Champagne smugly. The woman’s eyes flickered up and down Jasper’s body, pausing at the clasp of her cape, that bore the crest of her family, and the matching garments worn by her guards. And their swords. Oh, all three of them had big, capable-of-killing-her swords. Blood drained from the woman’s face as she stammered out something that might have been an apology, were they any words at all. She turned and bolted back the way she came. 

Powder immediately jumped forward, ready to give chase, easily faster than the woman, who stumbled and struggled in her escape, but Jasper placed a hand on the guard’s shoulder, snickering.

“Just leave it,” she said. “She’s just a jumped-up little runt who has way too high an opinion of herself. It’s not worth our time.”

“She can’t leave thinking she can get away with treating royalty like this!” Champagne protested.

“Well, she won’t, because she’s probably at home crying right now, and will never speak to anyone ever again. Our job is done.” Jasper placed her hands on her hips with a smug grin, which quickly turned into a frown. Something felt wrong. Her hands trailed the edges of her hips, and something was missing. Her heart dropped and she clenched her fists.

“Damn it.” Jasper’s head snapped up and she looked down the street, but of course, the woman was nowhere to be found. Her lips twisted into a snarl.

“What’s the matter?” asked Champagne.

“That brat robbed me!”

Champagne gasped. “How dare she! We’ll go after her!” Powder nodded in agreement, teeth bared and sword already drawn. Jasper shook her head.

“Oh no, this is between her and me. You wait here.”

Worry crossed Champagne’s face as Jasper stormed off. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” But Jasper had already made off down the street.

 

The woman had gotten a fair head start, so Jasper ran as fast as she dared in the city street. It was futile, probably, because Jasper had no idea where the woman went after she turned the corner, and it just wasn’t feasible to check every building in the city. But feasibility had never stopped her before.

Where would she go if she were a tiny thief? The woman was carrying books. Maybe a library? She also had a lot of stolen money… a bookstore? She slowed down and looked around, searching among the crowded street for a familiar face. She poked her head around the corner of an alley and… there she was. Leaning against the wall, books hugged against her chest, catching her breath. For a moment, Jasper just stood there, stunned at her luck, before the woman saw Jasper and yelped. She stumbled backwards as Jasper stalked forward. Jasper lifted her by the collar of her dress, lifting her in the air. The woman squeaked.

“Put me down!” she cried, struggling in Jasper’s grip.

“I will,” said Jasper. “Once you give back what you took from me.”

The woman growled and twisted around, trying to dislodge herself, but Jasper was too strong.

“Fine!” She dug into the pocket of her dress and then threw the contents across the alley. There was a distinct clink of metal as it hit the wall and the ground. “It’s probably dirty money anyway.”

Satisfied, Jasper dropped the woman, who fell heavily on the ground with a grunt. She turned back to pick up her purse and checked the contents. It was all still there.

“So what are you going to do with me now, huh?” said the woman. Jasper looked back. She was still on the floor, one knee brought to her chest and the other curled under her skirt. She was stacking her books up beside her, pout on her lips. “Arrest me? Execute me? Send the dogs after me?”

Jasper raised an eyebrow. “Dogs? What? No. If I wanted to do those things, I would have sent my guards,” she said. “although, really, I should have. It’s the punishment befitting theft.”

“If I knew you were the princess, I wouldn’t have robbed you,” said the woman.

“You wouldn’t?”

“Yes? Okay, no, I still would have. I just would have been sneakier about it.”

Jasper chuckled. At least the woman was honest. She bent down to pick up a book that had skittered to the other side of the alley. It was thick and heavy, covered in deep blue velvet. The title embossed in gold at the top, the words written in a curvy ligature that seemed to move the more she watched it. It was a language she couldn’t understand but could identify on sight. Her heart fluttered and she looked up at the woman.

“What is this?” she asked.

The woman glanced over at her and raised an eyebrow. “A book?” she said sarcastically. “What do those clods teach you in those dragon guarded castles?”

“Five different types of combat,” Jasper bit back, and the woman flinched. “So quit being uncooperative. It’s a magic book?”

The woman huffed. “What, are you going to arrest me on grounds of witchcraft?”

“I’m not going to arrest you! I just want to know if you know anything about magic?”

The woman shrugged, looking away. “Uh, sure, I guess. I might know a thing or two about magic. What’s it to you?”

“Do you think you could help me with something?”

The woman stared at Jasper for a moment, then scoffed. “Hah. Fuck you.” Jasper glared at her. The woman picked up her books in one arm, and used the other to pull herself up the wall so she was standing. “Don’t think you can just chase down and manhandle some poor, innocent—”

“Thief?” Jasper supplied.

“—and then expect her to just drop everything and curse your enemies or make you an elixir for eternal life or whatever it is you want! No thank you!”

“ _Please,_ the last thing I want to do is curse anyone,” said Jasper. “I just need information.”

“Then go to a library, because I’m going home.” She stepped forward, slowly, one hand braced against the wall. But when she tried to take the next step, her leg buckled under her weight, and she fell to her knees. The woman groaned and swore. 

Jasper frowned. “Are you alright?” she asked, offering a hand to the woman. She ignored it and moved herself into a sitting position, not looking at Jasper.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled. “I’ve just kind of… broken my leg.”

Jasper’s eyes widened. “Broken your leg?”

“Well, not my  _leg_ leg, just… you know…” She lifted the hem of her skirt above her knee. A quarter of the way down her calf, her flesh became a prosthetic of metal and leather straps, rusted and bent from years of wear, one part snapped right in two. Jasper’s heart dropped.

“Did I break it?” she asked. “When I dropped you? I’m sorry.” She fell to her knees, hovering over the woman, trying to find a way to help. But she didn’t know anything about prosthesis or metallurgy, and the woman seemed just as lost for a solution as Jasper was.

Up close, Jasper could see her deep blue eyes and the light dusting of freckles across her cheeks, bright pink in embarrassment.

“Uh, d-don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s not your fault. I’ve been needing to repair it for months, I just haven’t been able to afford it…”

Jasper still felt awful. It was one thing to take back what belonged to her, it was entirely another to actively ruin the life of a penniless, disabled woman. She pulled her purse out again.

“I’ll pay for it,” she said.

The woman narrowed her eyes. “I don’t need your charity, princess,” she said.

“What, you have no problem taking my money without my permission, but when I offer it to you, you won’t take it?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how this works.”

“Then…” Jasper grinned. “I’ll cut you a deal. I’ll buy the parts to replace your prosthetic, and you’ll tell me what I want to know about curses.”

The woman raised an eyebrow. “So this is bribery, is it?”

“Better than blackmail.”

“Look I don’t need your help.”

“Don’t you?”

“And I don’t even know all that much about curses! I’m more of an… alchemy and invocation kind of person, you know?”

“Well you know more than me. Do you want your leg fixed or not?”

The woman wrinkled her nose, not exactly happy about the prospect of being stuck there. “Fine,” she said reluctantly.

Jasper grinned and crouched beside the woman, placing one arm around her back and the other under her knees. The woman’s eyes widened. “Wait, no, I didn’t agree to this!” She squeaked as Jasper lifted her into her arms. She struggled to keep the books from falling out of her lap while also wrapping her arm around the back of Jasper’s neck tightly. “Put me down!” She glared at Jasper as the princess laughed.

“I don’t know what thought you were going to do,” she said.

“I would have thought of something! I’m not a child, you clod!”

She stepped out of the alley and into the main street. “Where to, kid?”

“It’s Peridot!” she grumbled. “Not kid. Across the street.”

 ***

Jasper followed Peridot’s instructions until she stopped her at a little run down store on the other side of the town. Jasper raised an eyebrow.

“You know, I was at a blacksmith’s earlier, one that was way closer to us than this,” said Jasper. “It looked a bit better kept too.”

Peridot rolled her eyes. “None of the smithies in this town know how to build my prosthetic. But that one is obnoxious and thinks he knows better than I do. At least Gregory sells me the individual parts so I can do it myself. You can put me down here.”

Jasper lowered Peridot carefully to her feet. “I thought you were a witch, not a blacksmith.”

“I only started training in magic in the last few years,” said Peridot, pushing the door open. “I’ve been an engineer for much, much longer.”

“Hmm.”

The walls were decorated in examples of artistry: shields, mail, armour, and tools. The back wall, behind the empty counter, was covered in shelves of boxes. Peridot hopped awkwardly from the door to the counter and banged repeatedly on a bell. Jasper inspected the metal work. They… weren’t the greatest. They looked old, frail and dented. But Peridot didn’t seem to mind. “Gregory!” She pounded on the counter until a man appeared in a doorway, that led to the forge behind the store. Balding, nearing middle aged, with long hair tied back in a ponytail, and thick black gloves on his hands. He grinned.

“Hey, sorry, Peridot. I couldn’t hear you out there,” he said. He glanced over at Jasper and blanched. “Uh, who’s your friend?” Jasper smirked and crossed her arms, showing off her thick muscles.

“Um. Just someone I know. She’s not my friend, but she has money,” said Peridot. “Gregory, I broke my foot, I need the following parts to repair it. You better write this down.”

Peridot listed off tools and materials that Jasper couldn’t even begin to understand the purpose of. Hell, the only words she even knew out of the list were ‘steel’ and ‘iron’, and various measurements. She was still surprised that Peridot built her own prosthetics and could repair them on her own. She didn’t really look like a blacksmith. She didn’t look like she could hold a hammer. But then again, Jasper didn’t look much like a princess, either. She was too tall, her muscles too big, the long scars across her face and nose far too intimidating. So who was Jasper to judge Peridot’s abilities based on her appearance? She should just accept that it was impressive and leave it at that.

“Princess, huh?” Gregory had procured a box of tools and materials, and now chatted with Peridot as she searched through it, checking each item. He stared at Jasper. “Now that you mention it, yeah. I do see a resemblance. You were a lot smaller in your last public appearance.”

Jasper shrugged. “I was nine.”

Gregory laughed hesitantly. “That’d do it.”

“Gregory, I’m missing three 3/8 inch rods and two springs,” said Peridot. The man nodded and pulled a few more materials from one of the boxes on the shelf.

“Um, Peridot. I know I’ve asked this before but…” He struggled for words and Peridot cringed in anticipation. “Have you heard from Steven?”

“He’s fine!” she said. “Probably. You know the Gems would die before they let him get hurt.”

Gregory frowned, worry creasing his face. “It’s… been a year. It’s not like them to take so long on a mission.”

“I-I know, but. You just have to trust them. Steven will be fine and back before you know it.” She refused to meet his gaze, face red and staring at the floor. It was pretty clear that Peridot was lying, but Gregory nodded anyway.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Are we done, Peridot?” asked Jasper.

Peridot glanced over at her, surprised at the sudden shift in the conversation, but it was enough to dissipate the sour mood in the room. “Hmm? Ah, yes, I believe so.”

Jasper nodded and dropped some money on the counter. She didn’t bother to count it or ask about prices, but judging by each of their faces, it was more than enough.

“Holy smokes, you just carry that kind of money around with you?” Peridot cried. “That’s more than I can make in a year!”

“Um, I’ll see if I have change,” said Greg.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Jasper. The man stammered out a thank you and she turned to Peridot. “How far away is your house?”

***

Peridot stopped Jasper before a small flagstone cottage. She squirmed in the princess’s arms. “You didn’t have to carry me,” she said. “It’s so belittling. Gregory would have let me sleep on his floor. It wouldn’t be for the first time.”

“Sure, and make awkward conversation about the Steven kid all night long,” said Jasper.

Peridot cringed at the thought. “I don’t want to talk about that,” she groaned. “I don’t even want to think about that. Ugh.”

The house was a little bigger than it appeared. The kitchen and living room were combined, with a narrow set of stairs to the side that led to a second floor of probably bedrooms. Jasper wondered how Peridot climbed them. Plants hung from hanging pots in the windows, and every available surface housed bottles, books, and strange metal contraptions Jasper couldn’t begin to consider the purpose of. It was a messy fusion of witchcraft and engineering. Jasper carefully shifted Peridot’s belongings and placed them on the dining table, precarious among its other contents, followed by Peridot in the chair before them. Peridot made a face and pulled herself out of the chair and onto the table in one swift movement.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’d offer you tea or something but I don’t have any and I don’t want to get up.” Jasper rolled her eyes and pulled out a chair at the table.

“Okay. Now you have to uphold your end of the bargain,” said Jasper. “Tell me what you know about curses.”

Peridot drew one knee to her chest, resting her elbow on her knee and her head on her palm. “Just so we’re clear,” she said. “You  _are_ one of those cursed-as-a-child and locked-in-a-tower princesses, right?”

“How’d you guess?”

“So why are you so interested in curses? That part of your life is over. You obviously got out and…” she trailed off and Jasper raised an eyebrow.

“Do I strike you as the type to wait around my whole life for a prince who most definitely  _isn’t_ my true love to rescue me?”

Peridot looked Jasper up ad down and bit her lip. “No. You’re not.”

“No, I’m not,” Jasper agreed. “I thought if I could bust myself out and defeat the witch who cursed me, that would be enough.”

“It wasn’t,” said Peridot. “Curses wouldn’t be so notoriously difficult if you could just kill people to break it.”

“Well obviously I know that now, so what  _can_ I do?”

“Wait around for your true love to show up?” she suggested. Jasper grimaced. She didn’t do passive. She did passive for ten years and she hated every minute of it, and she didn’t have the time or the patience to wait around for something that probably doesn’t even exist. She clenched her fists in frustration and Peridot shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. As far as I’m aware, there is no way to break a curse other than through the means outlined at the time of cursing. I mean, there’s counter-cursing, where you can get cursed again where the conditions override the previous curse, but that’s just additional shitty magic in you, it’s a vicious circle of everything wrong.”

“A counter-curse won’t work,” Jasper growled. “My coronation involves taking a magical oath that conflicts with other types of magic. So I can’t be queen until the curse is broken. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this kingdom has been pretty awful under the rule of my ‘advisors’.”

“Noticed? You think I robbed you just for the fun of it? I haven’t paid my landlord in six months.”

“Yeah, I know. Rampant poverty, war, crime. Nobody seems to care about it and no one listens to me because I don’t have any real power yet. So I  _need_ to break this curse without this ‘True Love’ drivel.”

“Look, I wish I could help you, but I’m not exactly an expert on curses. I have enough practical experience to warrant staying as far away from that mess as possible.”

Jasper raised her eyebrows. “You’re cursed?”

“Yeah, it’s not just for princesses nowadays. I don’t like to talk about it. There used to be other witches here who might be able to help you but… they’re not here anymore.” Peridot thought for a moment, drumming her fingers on her calf. Her eyes lit up. “But their _stuff_ is.” She scrambled through her pile of books and flipped through one of them until she pulled out and unfolded a map. “There’s a rumour of a village of witches in the south, called Victim’s Village,” she grinned. “It’s probably the most sure-fire way of finding a curser.”

“Victim’s Village? Sounds spooky,” said Jasper.

“You mean ridiculous,” Peridot scoffed. “Witches are so dramatic.”

“Even you?”

“Especially me.”

Jasper laughed and leaned over to get a better look at the map. Jasper didn’t like to admit that she was bad at reading maps. She could identify the borders of her kingdom and the capital and very little else. Peridot pointed out what must have been Victim’s Village, though the label was written in the magical moving script that she didn’t understandp. It was, indeed, south, but she couldn’t determine how far south exactly.

“I’d suggest following main roads until you get to Ocean Town, then you’d cross the river to Jersey, and go south-west from there. It’s heavily wooded but I doubt it’ll be very difficult to navigate.” Peridot traced the route on the map, but by the time she got to the end, Jasper had already forgotten the beginning.

“I can’t read that map,” she frowned. “How about you just direct me?”

“I… what? That’s what I just did,” said Peridot.

“I mean… come with me, acting as a navigator on the trip.”

Peridot blinked at her. “Absolutely not. It’s one thing to give you information, but it’s entirely another to travel for an indefinite amount of time with a complete stranger through places I’ve never even been to!”

“But if it’s a witch’s village, they probably won’t let me in unaccompanied,” Jasper protested. “Don’t you want to cure your curse too?”

“Not really! I’ve completely resigned myself to a lifetime of misery and—” Peridot cut herself off and her face fell. Jasper wasn’t sure if Peridot was upset, or if the magical restrictions that prevented one from talking about their curse had kicked in. It could have been both.

“You don’t deserve this curse,” said Jasper. “I know you don’t. And I know you don’t really want to have to live with it much longer. This may be our only chance. Please?” Jasper grinned. “Besides, I bet you’ve never left this town before, it’ll be an adventure.”

Peridot pouted, lower lip wobbling like she was trying to form an argument. Eventually she sighed.

“Fine,” she growled. “But only because I’m about to be evicted anyway. Not as a favour to you. I’ll need about a week to fix my prosthetic, and then we can leave.”

Jasper nodded. A week… wasn’t a lot of time. She would have to organise a carriage, supplies, and she probably wouldn’t be allowed to leave without a guard or two. But it would also mean they were leaving just after she recovered from the effects of her curse. It was really the best travel time.

“Then I will see you in a week.”

**Author's Note:**

> always open to concrit. my blog is regretanddeepspacelime


End file.
